Independent senator Joe Lieberman.
Alamy
Third parties in America are rarely successful, either at the federal or state level. In more than 16,000 contests since 1947, only seven candidates who were not standing as a Democrat or a Republican have been elected to Congress. The last successful presidential candidate who was not from either party was the Whig Millard Fillmore in 1853. In the 2008 presidential election all the third party candidates between them only managed to poll 1.9 million votes (1.4%) of the more than 131 million votes cast. Third parties fare little better at state level.
Why do third parties struggle?
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